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Apparently this is a small battle in a bigger war - the DA appears to be acting as a social justice warrior more so than an officer of the court. Not excusing the judge's actions at all - just sensed there was more to this than "bad judge!!!".

We're going to see more of this, as many DA candidates are now explicitly running on reversing the trend of aggressive prosecution of low-level crimes. It's important to understand both directions as valid; it's a difference in opinion as to how to use the criminal code to improve society, understanding that an overly-strict penal system is as bad or worse than an overly-lax penal system.

--Sam

"I wonder about the trees. / Why do we wish to bear / Forever the noise of these / More than another noise / So close to our dwelling place?" — Robert Frost, "The Sound of Trees"

A total of 36 people were arrested during the parade Saturday. According to Rollins’s office, prosecutors are pressing forward in the cases in which the charges are violent in nature, including assault and battery on a police officer. However, 20 of the people arrested were charged only with disorderly conduct alone or disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. And in those cases, prosecutors have been asking Sinnott to drop the charges, according to the DA’s office.

Great to see just how readily some folks here are ready to put on the jackboots, tho.

--Sam

Sounds like there is more going on here than just this case. The prosecutor isn't doing her job in prosecuting many crimes in general.

From your article:

Elected as Suffolk County’s first female district attorney last year, Rollins has garnered national attention for her progressive criminal justice platform, including a list of 15 petty crimes for which her office’s default stance is to not prosecute. Both disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, as a standalone charge or in combination with another charge on the list, are among the nonviolent offenses on the list.

Rollins said Tuesday that, at her request, prosecutors were using their constitutional discretion “to triage cases and use our resources most effectively to protect public safety.”

However, in one exchange Tuesday, Sinnott reportedly chided a prosecutor for suggesting that while the actions of Lowell man — charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest for allegedly forming a human chain with other protesters — were “not appropriate,” prosecuting the 26-year-old would not do anything to make the community safer.

“Not appropriate? It sounds like he picked up the wrong fork at dinner,” Sinnott shot back, according to the Globe.

A prosecutor's job includes exercising prosecutorial discretion. If the public interest is better served by not pursuing certain offenses, it's wholly within a prosecutor's power to make that decision. It is, quite explicitly, what we elect them to do.

--Sam

Originally Posted by Sparko

Sounds like there is more going on here than just this case. The prosecutor isn't doing her job in prosecuting many crimes in general.

From your article:

Elected as Suffolk County’s first female district attorney last year, Rollins has garnered national attention for her progressive criminal justice platform, including a list of 15 petty crimes for which her office’s default stance is to not prosecute. Both disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, as a standalone charge or in combination with another charge on the list, are among the nonviolent offenses on the list.

Rollins said Tuesday that, at her request, prosecutors were using their constitutional discretion “to triage cases and use our resources most effectively to protect public safety.”

However, in one exchange Tuesday, Sinnott reportedly chided a prosecutor for suggesting that while the actions of Lowell man — charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest for allegedly forming a human chain with other protesters — were “not appropriate,” prosecuting the 26-year-old would not do anything to make the community safer.

“Not appropriate? It sounds like he picked up the wrong fork at dinner,” Sinnott shot back, according to the Globe.

"I wonder about the trees. / Why do we wish to bear / Forever the noise of these / More than another noise / So close to our dwelling place?" — Robert Frost, "The Sound of Trees"

We're going to see more of this, as many DA candidates are now explicitly running on reversing the trend of aggressive prosecution of low-level crimes.

That sounds a bit simplistic, Sam. If the "low-level crimes" don't need to be prosecuted, there's a way to do that. You have them decodified.

It's important to understand both directions as valid; it's a difference in opinion as to how to use the criminal code to improve society, understanding that an overly-strict penal system is as bad or worse than an overly-lax penal system.

--Sam

It's important to understand that the judge's reaction is in response to a DA's decision not to uphold the laws as written.

Your bad analogy of a police officer fails because the police officer has no power to de-criminalize whole categories of crimes. Sure, he can exercise discretion, he cannot invalidate codified ordinances.

A prosecutor's job includes exercising prosecutorial discretion. If the public interest is better served by not pursuing certain offenses, it's wholly within a prosecutor's power to make that decision. It is, quite explicitly, what we elect them to do.

--Sam

But as Teal pointed out, the decision had already been made to prosecute.

Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
Than a fool in the eyes of God

From the reporting I've seen, I can't even tell if this happened after or during arraignment. But it doesn't matter. If the prosecution decides a minute before trial that it won't prosecute, it can make that decision. And absent some extraordinary showing of injustice, a judge doesn't have the authority to override.

--Sam

Originally Posted by Mountain Man

But as Teal pointed out, the decision had already been made to prosecute.

"I wonder about the trees. / Why do we wish to bear / Forever the noise of these / More than another noise / So close to our dwelling place?" — Robert Frost, "The Sound of Trees"

A prosecutor's job includes exercising prosecutorial discretion. If the public interest is better served by not pursuing certain offenses, it's wholly within a prosecutor's power to make that decision. It is, quite explicitly, what we elect them to do.

--Sam

on a case by case basis - depending on extenuating circumstances, not on ignoring the law altogether.

What if a prosecutor said, "We will no longer prosecute any burglaries, rapes or murders"